The Future is Here – How Microsoft Integrated Social Media Company Wide

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Microsoft Corporation is one of the biggest technological companies in the world. So, when it comes to future development, they are always ahead of the game. Microsoft has integrated social media through the entire company and has even created social media management software systems. When it comes to their company, future development will only keep advancing because of the social media practices that have already been put in place.

Microsoft values a fully integrated organization by establishing the Microsoft Social Command Center. This command center helps the organization monitor all interactions and send off data to different sectors of the company. “The center monitors and manages all social media interactions in the U.S. – gathering real-time insights and responding directly to customers as needed. It also forwards social media messages to other parts of the organization, such as customer care, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence (Sprinklr. (2017, June ).” The Social Command Center can help benefit all sectors of the business. Social media can help track and identify anything from customer concerns to sale issues. Miri Rodriguez, senior lead for social media and communities, says “Does sales understand they can more easily close a sale because a relationship already exists on social? If sales want to know why a product is hot in one area but not another, I can find out through social media (Ascierto, J. (2017, January).” Microsoft’s future development can keep excelling by reviewing data that comes into the customer experience center and applying it to new products and practices.

Aside from an integrated organization, Microsoft also integrates the application of social media with employee involvement, customer engagement, and product development and design. Barbara Ramteo, a Technical Account Manager at Microsoft, says they use a social program called “Microsoft Teams” that helps keep the whole company connected. She said, “It fosters a lot of collaboration. The program has a file share tab that everyone in a specific team can get access to. It takes productivity to a whole new level”. The program helps keep employees involved and creates easier access for communication. The company has run some tests to see how effective employees work while using the program. This can be used towards future development of the workspace. Offering a more flexible work week can boost productivity.

When it comes to customer engagement, the Microsoft Social Command Center helps manage and direct customers to the right location. The Command Center works as a large team to overview all social channels to look for social opportunities. “The Microsoft Social Command Center is the foundation of our social strategy, sifting through the social chatter to identify opportunities to engage with customers in compelling and authentic ways (Microsoft (2017, August).” By using the platform Sprinklr, a large team manages each Microsoft product by listening, planning, engaging, and driving paid media across over 160 channels. The Command Center team can quickly navigate and monitor audience’s social engagements based on keyword searches. Members from the team will respond with personal handles to answer questions and concern. In the future, being able to quickly respond to messages in real time will only be able to get faster and faster.

Every year, Microsoft uses 13-14% of their revenue towards research and development. Staying ahead of technology is what makes Microsoft a highly innovated company. Collaboration and high levels of productivity amongst all sectors of the company is used to help with product development and design. “Ultimately, the goal is to improve communication and collaboration between employees and, therefore, improve the overall employee engagement and productivity within a company (Sebastiano, C. (2015, September).” The more productive employees are, the more innovated and inspired they will be. Using data collected from social media channels, can help spark creativity and lead to new products and design.

Lessons for Others

Moreover, when it comes to future development, Microsoft has already implemented the social media strategies to keep advancing with technological development. They are already on the right track by integrating social media throughout all sectors of company and using it to collect data and feedback. Using this information, Microsoft can apply it to new products and development to exceed customer and employee expectations.

If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site, please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Program Director, Social Media for Business Performance.

References

Ascierto, J. (2017, January). How a Windows Rollout Led Microsoft to Unify Its Social Media Strategy. Retrieved November 27, 2017, from http://www.prnewsonline.com/windows-microsoft-social-media-strategy/

Microsoft (2017, February ). 25 innovations by Microsoft you might not have known. Retrieved November 27, 2017, from https://news.microsoft.com/apac/2016/11/25/25-innovations-by-microsoft-you-might-not-have-known/

Microsoft (2017, August). How Microsoft uses social media to create the customer experience. Retrieved November 27, 2017, from https://enterprise.microsoft.com/en-us/articles/blog/microsoft-in-business/microsoft-uses-social-media-create-customer-experience/